Broken Frontier

Top Cow Productions is adding top-flight female creators to one of comics' longest-running female character books. And in an unprecedented move in mainstream comics, the entire art team of penciler, inker, and colorist will be composed of women.

Adriana Melo (Star Wars: Empire, Birds of Prey) takes over as the new ongoing artist on Witchblade with July's #99. She'll be joined by inker Mariah Benes (Superman) and colorist Sonia Oback (City of Heroes). Melo and crew will work on Witchblade #100 in conjunction with current Witchblade artist Mike Choi, before taking the reins full time with #101. The new team will also handle art chores on a 4-page original Witchblade story for Image Comics' contribution to Free Comic Book Day.

“It's unprecedented to have three women filling the artistic seats on a mainstream book on an ongoing basis,” said Top Cow Editor-In-Chief Renae Geerlings. “Sonia Oback has been on Witchblade for a few issues, and has blown us away with her work. And when we saw the team of Adriana and Mariah, we knew we had great partners for her.”

“I feel like a lucky, lucky man who's been dropped onto the Isle of Talented Amazon Women,” said ongoing Witchblade writer Ron Marz. “I worked with Adriana on a few Star Wars issues, but the collaboration was too brief by far. I'm really looking forward to her settling in for a good long run on Witchblade, and bringing Mariah and Sonia with her. What more could any man want?"

“And before anybody makes a smart-ass comment about Adriana being hired to draw a female-lead book just because she's a woman, I can tell you she was hired because she's the best artist for the job,” Marz continued. “Her first pages have already proven that."

“Working on Witchblade makes me very happy in that it's one of the few books starring a strong female lead character,” said Adriana Melo. “And having the opportunity to collaborate with Ron Marz again is outstanding. He's a great professional and a fantastic and fun person to work with. Mariah and Sonia are really awesome, too, and I feel blessed to have them on my side.”

Top Cow will soon announce a new project involving artist Mike Choi.